As Jürgen Klopp’s Liverpool side entered the final quarter of an hour with the game still a stalemate against Arsenal, the German hoped a young Geordie may rescue the tie from a replay.
Much to the dismay of Newcastle supporters watching the tie at home, once Magpies academy prospect Bobby Clark made his appearance in a harsh reminder of our past owner.
The now 18-year-old was perhaps the final casualty of the poorly managed Mike Ashley Era, when he departed for Merseyside in 2021.
Before Clark there was Ivan Toney, and a girth of others, who were never given the opportunity to fully showcase their talents in black and white – though it may feel refreshing to some to see improvements already under PIF & co.
Clark, son of ex-Mag Lee Clark, may himself look at the opportunity afforded to Lewis Miley – and to a lesser extent perhaps Ben Parkinson – and wonder where his career on Tyneside could have been.
It appears as though Klopp sees the youngster as a part of his future vision, rewarding the versatile attacker with a two-year deal last month, so let’s hope this is a mistake we don’t make again.
Interesting that “fans” still insist on blaming Ashley for the moving on of talented players. I somehow doubt that he was quite THAT hands on.
Any true fan will tell you that when it came to spotting and hanging on to talent Benitez was hopeless.
On the Spaniard’s watch Ivan Toney was loaned out 5 times before finally being sold.
Townsend went on to extend his career in style, Kevin Mbabu left to develop his true potential, Janmaat, Thauvin, De Jong, Armstrong, Mitro, and Jacob Murphy were all shown the door, either temporarily or permanently by Benitez.
Yet the author here insists on pointing the finger at Ashley, when he should really be highlighting Benitez’ inability to spot talent if it bit him on the ***!
Watching a podcast today a pro quite rightly pointed out give Benitez a huge amount of cash and he’ll bring you superstars, but ask him to shop in the bargain basement and he’s hopeless.
Daveys **** mate(Quote)
Nowhere does the article say it was Mike Ashley’s decision. It just highlights this as one of the final big errors of the ‘Mike Ashley era’, which it was.
Olly Hawkins(Quote)
Harsh on Rafa. He had limited funds, apart from the Almiron signing.
Of the 23 players he brought in, only 3-4 turned out poor buys. The rest either did a job or were sold on without a substantial loss.
And the good ones who were sold, including Townsend, all wanted to leave due to relegation, to compete in Europe or to protect international careers. Mitro is an exception – but at the time he was prone to disciplinary issues and Rafa lost trust in him.
Toney is one that got away. Although few would have said that at the time. He seems to have peaked later in his career. However, the £100 million being touted for a 27 year old, with 1 very good Premier League season, no record at “Champions League level”, following a lengthy ban for breaking rules (including betting on NUFC to lose) is absolutely crazy.
Correct(Quote)
You have to to remember Benitez wasn’t the only manager not to develop the youngsters.
“King Kev” scrapped the reserves and probably did as much damage as Benitez and Ashley with regards to Newcastle’s future.
But Ashley certainly brought some “yes men” managers who were all culpable in a disastrous tenure.
Joseph(Quote)